Over the past 25 years, ecommerce has gone through several major transformations.
In the beginning, almost everything was about infrastructure. Simply launching an online store already felt innovative.
Then came the obsession with logistics, performance, media buying, and customer acquisition.
Now, we may be entering a new phase: the era of behavioral interpretation.
It is no longer enough to simply display products. Platforms are starting to understand intent, context, timing, and preferences in real time.
And that is precisely the layer on which Coder Ivy is being built.
I met André Carius more than 20 years ago, in the early days of Sack’s. He was one of the very first people I ever worked with. Back then, ecommerce in Brazil was still almost an act of faith. The Brazilian internet was only beginning to discover what online retail actually meant.
What always stood out to me about André was not just his technical capability. It was a rare combination of deep technological expertise, practical business vision, and strong character.
Over the past decades, he has helped build relevant companies across digital commerce, payments, infrastructure, and technology.
And perhaps that is exactly why I believe in Coder Ivy.
We are entering a cycle in which virtually every company will claim to use AI. But I believe that, in the medium term, the real differentiator will not simply be the models themselves. It will be the ability to understand human behavior in real time and turn that into better, more efficient, and more relevant experiences.
Coder Ivy’s thesis sits exactly at that intersection.
The company is building Behavioral AI tools capable of helping large enterprises better understand intent, context, preferences, and consumer behavior.
It may sound simple. But it is not.
At its core, we are talking about something much bigger: creating systems capable of interpreting human signals with a level of personalization that, until recently, seemed impossible — or purely science fiction.
And here, an analogy I particularly like comes to mind.
For a long time, software was like building roads. You created a fixed structure and expected millions of people to adapt themselves to it.
AI may be the exact opposite.
For the first time, it seems possible to make the road dynamically adapt to the driver.
We still have far more questions than answers. The entire market does.
Which companies will truly build long-term competitive advantages?
Which models will actually be defensible?
How much of this intelligence will remain concentrated within big tech companies?
How much will be captured at the application layer?
I honestly have no idea.
But over the years, I have learned that during moments of meaningful technological transition, there is enormous value in staying close to the right people while the future is still being built.
And that may be the main reason behind my investment in Coder Ivy.
What gives me confidence is not the absence of uncertainty. It is seeing tangible signs of real adoption emerging while the market is still trying to understand what the final shape of this new software layer will look like.
The company is already beginning to show consistent growth in contracts, ARR, and commercial expansion, alongside meaningful operational results tied to personalization, conversion uplift, and consumer behavior.
More importantly, there seems to be a rare combination of timing, experience, and strategic positioning within the digital commerce ecosystem.
The decision to start with platforms such as VTEX and Shopify, for example, feels far less like coincidence and far more like an intelligent distribution strategy within an ecosystem the team knows deeply.
I am investing in André’s ability — and in the caliber of people he is able to attract — to transform decades of experience in technology, data, digital commerce, and behavioral intelligence into something that is only now beginning to emerge.
Perhaps the best way to summarize it is this:
There are investments where you try to predict the future.
And there are investments where you simply try to secure a seat close to the people who are most likely to build it.
